James Sorene

James Sorene is CEO of BICOM, the Britain-Israel communications and research centre, and a regular commentator on Israel and Middle East issues on TV and radio. Before joining BICOM James was Deputy Director of UK Government communications and Official Spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

Ever since the movement’ s inception, Zionists have advocated very different ideas of Israel: would the dream of Herzl, Ahad Ha’am, Weizmann, Jabotinsky, Ben Gurion or Begin triumph? Would Israel be a ‘normal’ state, or a ‘light unto the nations’? The state that emerged, partially out of the ashes of the Shoah, became a refuge for those escaping the horrors of WWII and its aftermath, and to many a utopian ideal. Seventy years on, at the heart of one of the ...